Redskins Hip Hip Hooray, Take Three

I didn't hear any "Hip Hip Hooray" chants from the crowd in the first quarter this week. I only saw one group of fans carrying "Hip Hip Hooray" signs. I didn't hear any other reporters asking about it in the locker room.

But I'm not gonna quit this Hoorayride, not until it winds up in some rustic location with lots of pumpkin-spiced beer and several dozen tickets to Tampa Bay, and so I had to ask players whether they had Hip Hip Hoorayed again. Uhhh, duh.

"Marcus Washington," advised Kedric Golston, when I asked in which direction to head.

Yup, that's right. The first time it was Zorn. The next time it was Randle El. This time, the honors moved to the defensive side, although it's all more random than you might have guessed.

"I was kind of taking a knee," Washington explained. "And when everybody stood up I was kind of in the middle, so everybody was like 'BREAK IT DOWN!' So I was like, 'okayyyy.' "

In the past, he told me, he might have asked for "Redskins!" on three. Or maybe "Team!" But in this atmosphere?

"Guys said they wanted to hear the Hip Hip Hooray, so I just kind of went with it," Washington said. "Haven't really done the Hip Hip Hooray before. This was the first time I was introduced to that."

There were new practioners this week, but the Seattle folks have, of course, seen it before.

"We've done everything in Seattle," laughed Shaun Alexander. "I mean, I just figured that's what they do [here]. Hope we can do about 16 of them."

Zorn, as usual, was sort of reserved when asked about the cheer, again trying to keep the focus on the football and not the goofery. Not that it stopped me from asking.

"Oh, I think it's great," he said dryly. "I think it's fun. But, you know, I don't look for it to be an epic, historical event. It's that," he continued, when I tried to explain myself. "It's all that. It's fun. It's great when you win, and you can have guys fool around, and that's what we're doing, and we'll probably continue that, too."

Chris Samuels speculated that Zorn had forgotten to do the cheer, which is why Washington had to stand up. I don't believe Zorn forgets anything. And make no mistake, he remains the driver of this Hoorayride.

Counting yesterday and the ten weeks remaining in the season (including the bye week, when they should practice just to stay sharp), plus four wins in the postseason (no first-round bye), that would still only be 15 games to play, only 15 opportunities to do the cheer.

Wait, Shaun must be counting the Pro Bowl, since one side will be virtually all Redskins?